In this paper, the predictive microbiology approach has been generaliz
ed to the study of growth, survival and death of Listeria monocytogene
s. As this micro-organism is involved in food poisoning, its growth, s
urvival and death were studied as functions of low temperatures, NaCl
and phenol compounds, in a synthetic medium, by a factorially designed
experiment. A significant inactivation of L. monocytogenes was obtain
ed with 20 ppm of phenol and 4% (w/v) NaCl at temperatures from 4 to 1
2 degrees C. An empirical model is proposed to describe, in a single s
tep, the biomass profile cs studied factors. Thereby, the influence of
temperature, NaCl and phenol concentration on L. Monocytogenes biomas
s quantity (0.5-8 log cfu ml(-1)) are presented as a function of stora
ge duration. The comparisons of the proposed model with existing model
s (Gompertz for growth, vitalistic for survival and death) were perfor
med. The use of a single equation allows the prediction of contaminati
on levels in all experimental conditions without knowledge a priori. T
he model offers considerable prospects for its use in food microbiolog
y.